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Coronavirus: Italy cancels five Serie A football matches amid outbreak

Five Italian Serie-A weekend matches including Sunday's clash between Juventus and Inter Milan have been postponed due to the coronavirus, the Italian football league said Saturday.

Published: 29 February 2020 17:38 CET
Coronavirus: Italy cancels five Serie A football matches amid outbreak
Milan's San Siiro stadum has been closed to the public. Photo: AFP
Other matches called off are AC Milan v Genoa, Parma v SPAL, Sassuolo v Brescia, all scheduled for Sunday, and Saturday's clash between Udinese and Fiorentina, the league said in a statement.
   
The games will be played on May 13 and the Italian Cup final, scheduled to take place on that day, will be put back to May 20, the league said.
   
The matches had been scheduled to be played behind closed doors.
   
Italy is the country hardest hit by the virus outbreak, with over 1,000 cases and 29 deaths – mostly in regions in the north.
   
The decision had been taken in response to the “exceptional circumstances concerning protection of public health and security”, the league said.
   
Last weekend, four Serie-A matches were postponed with the Hellas Verona v Cagliari and the Torino v Parma matches to be played on March 11.
 
No date has been fixed as yet for the Atalanta v Sassuolo and Inter Milan v Sampdoria games.
 

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HEALTH

Covid-19 still causing 1,000 deaths a week in Europe, WHO warns

The World Health Organization's European office warned on Tuesday the risk of Covid-19 has not gone away, saying it was still responsible for nearly 1,000 deaths a week in the region. And the real figure may be much higher.

Published: 27 June 2023 13:27 CEST
Covid-19 still causing 1,000 deaths a week in Europe, WHO warns

The global health body on May 5 announced that the Covid-19 pandemic was no longer deemed a “global health emergency.”

“Whilst it may not be a global public health emergency, however, Covid-19 has not gone away,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge told reporters.

The WHO’s European region comprises 53 countries, including several in central Asia.

“Close to 1,000 new Covid-19 deaths continue to occur across the region every week, and this is an underestimate due to a drop in countries regularly reporting Covid-19 deaths to WHO,” Kluge added, and urged authorities to ensure vaccination coverage of at least 70 percent for vulnerable groups.

Kluge also said estimates showed that one in 30, or some 36 million people, in the region had experienced so called “long Covid” in the last three years, which “remains a complex condition we still know very little about.”

“Unless we develop comprehensive diagnostics and treatment for long Covid, we will never truly recover from the pandemic,” Kluge said, encouraging more research in the area which he called an under-recognised condition.

Most countries in Europe have dropped all Covid safety restrictions but some face mask rules remain in place in certain countries in places like hospitals.

Although Spain announced this week that face masks will no longer be required in certain healthcare settings, including hospitals and pharmacies, with a couple of exceptions.

Sweden will from July 1st remove some of its remaining Covid recommendations for the public, including advice to stay home and avoid close contact with others if you’re ill or have Covid symptoms.

The health body also urged vigilance in the face of a resurgence of mpox, having recorded 22 new cases across the region in May, and the health impact of heat waves.

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